This section is an attempt to document both the university as an institution and the work being done in it through conversations with professors and intellectuals working within the Humanities and Social Sciences. From its beginning, Figure/Ground has held the democratization of technology to be a vital mission. This segment embraces that mission and augments it, seeking out interviews with established academics alongside up-and-coming figures who are working in creative and innovative ways – a vital component for a well-rounded representation of the life of the university.
In documenting the life of the Humanities and Social Sciences, this section is not founded on a definition of these disciplines; rather, it is concerned with central questions around which these disciplines and their various methods converge. Figure/Ground’s heritage is rooted in questions prompted by phenomenology and continental philosophy, questions that are prompted by conceptions such as the subject’s being in the world and its horizon of meaning. However, these do not constitute the limits of the series methodological interest. Rather they serve as an inspiration for central questions concerned with the human being in the world and its experience of time, symbol, and society. These topics provide a converging point for multiple methods and viewpoints in diverse fields such as philosophy, literature, linguistics, anthropology, and religion.
Past interviews that have documented work in the university surrounding the topic of the human being in the world have included figures such as Dermot Moran, Dylan Trigg, Tom Boellstorff, and Don Ihde. The topic of the human experience of time has centered on questions raised by object-oriented philosophy and speculative realism and has included discussions with Mark Bevir, Nick Srnicek, and Graham Harman. The last two topics, symbol and society, form an intersection at the ways in which humans experience the world: in society and through symbol. Past interviewees include Simon Critchley, Mark Johnson, Richard Kearney, Noam Chomsky, and Douglas Kellner.
It is the belief of this series that there is always a philosophy, always a literature, and always an anthropology at the background of any inquiry. Thus this interview series occupies a foundational role in the exercise of documenting the work of the university as well as its institutional life in our era.
Alexandra Campbell
Editor
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Interviews:
Dr. Peter Adamson
Professor of Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
(Late Ancient Philosophy, Greek and Arabic Philosophy)
Dr. David L. Altheide
Professor of Justice Studies, Arizona State University
(Mass Communication, Quantitative Research Methods, Propaganda)
Dr. Ian Angus
Professor of Humanities, Simon Fraser University
(Phenomenology, Critical Theory, Canadian Studies)
Dr. Richard Barbrook
Senior Lecturer of Politics, University of Westminster
(Marxism, Critical Theory, Media Regulation)
Dr. Howard S. Becker
American Sociologist
(Simbolic Interactionism, Labelling Theory, Sociology of Deviance)
Dr. Debra Bergoffen
Professor Emerita of Philosophy, George Mason University
(Continental Philosophy, Feminism, Ethics and Politics)
Dr. Mark Bevir
Professor of Political Science, University of California-Berkeley
(Political Theory and Philosophy, Public Policy and Organization)
Dr. Lee Braver
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Hiram College
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Wittgenstein)
Dr. Adam Briggle
Assistant Professor of Philolosphy and Religion, U of North Texas
(Bioethics, Environmental Studies, Philosophy of Technology)
Dr. Levi R. Bryant
Professor of Philosophy, Collin College
(Speculative Realism, Object-Oriente Ontology, Deleuze)
Dr. John D. Caputo
Professor Emeritus of Religion and Humanities, Syracuse University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Deconstruction)
Dr. Taylor Carman
Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. David Cerbone
Professor of Philosophy, West Virginia University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Wittgenstein)
Dr. Noam Chomsky
Professor of Linguistics, MIT
(Linguistics, Political Economy, Propaganda)
Dr. Joseph Cohen
Lecturer, University College Dublin
(Contemporary Continental Philosophy)
Dr. Simon Critchley
Professor of Philosophy, The New School
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Ethics and Politics)
Dr. Steven Galt Crowell
Professor of Philosophy, Rice University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. Stephen Evans
Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Baylor University
(Philosophy of Religion, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. Christopher Fynsk
Profesor of Philosophy and Literature, EGS
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Comparative Literature)
Dr. Kenneth J. Gergen
Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College
(Interpretation Theory, Relational Theory)
Dr. Graham Harman
Associate Professor of Philosophy, American University of Cairo
(Speculative Realism, Object-Oriented Ontology)
Dr. Karsten Harries
Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. R. Kevin Hill
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Portland State University
(Philosophy of Law, Continental philosophy, Wittgenstein)
Dr. Mark L. Johnson
Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon
(Philosophy of Language, Cognitive Sciences and Linguistics)
Dr. Eileen A. Joy
Associate Professor of English Language and Literature,
Southern Illinois University
(Medieval Studies, Speculative Realism, Object-Oriented Ontology)
Dr. Daniel Katz
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Studies,
University of Warwick
(Philosophy, Literature and the Arts)
Dr. Richard Kearney
Chair of Philosophy at Boston College
(European Philosophy and Literature)
Dr. Mark Kingwell
Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto
(Politics and Culture)
Dr. Katerina Kolozova
Professor of Philosophy, University American College-Skopje
(Gender Studies and Sociological Theory)
Dr. Alphonso Lingis
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University
(Phenomenology, Existentialism and Ethics)
Dr. John Lysaker
Professor of Philosophy, Emory University
(Philosophy and Comparative Literature)
Dr. William MacNeil
Dean of Law and Head of the Griffith Law School
(Philosophy of Law, Literature, Science Fiction)
Dr. Jeff Malpas
Professor of Philosophy, University of Tasmania
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics)
Dr. Dermot Moran
Professor of Philosophy, University College Dublin
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. Timothy Morton
Professor of English, University of California-Davis
(Literature and Ecology, Romantic-period Literature, Literary Theory)
Dr. Mark Poster
Professor of Media Studies, University of California-Irvine
(Media Studies, Critical Theory, Comparative Literature)
Dr. Paul Prescott
Associate Professor of English at the University of Warwick
(English Literature, Shakespeare)
Dr. Calvin O. Schrag - REFERENCED
George Ade Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Ethics)
Dr. John Searle
Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
(Philosophy of Language, Mind and Society)
Dr. Steven Shaviro
DeRoy Professor, Wayne State University
(Cultural Theory, Cultural Studies, Film and New Media)
Dr. Anthony Paul Smith
Assistant Professor of Religion, La Salle University
(Philosophy, Theology and Ecology)
Dr. Nina Power
Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, Roehampton University
(European Philosophy, Pedagogy, Art and Politics)
Dr. Nick Srnicek
Lecturer in International Relations, London School of Economics
(Technology and International Relations)
Dr. Robert D. Stolorow
Founding Faculty Member and Supervising Analyst,
Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis
(Psychoanalisns, Existentialism, Phenomenology)
Dr. Iain Thomson
Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. Dylan Trigg
Doctoral researcher,
Centre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliquée
(Phenomenology of Place, Bodily Experience)
Dr. Merold Westphal
Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
(Existential Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Religion)
Dr. Ian Woodward
Senior Lecturer of Sociology, Griffith University
(Cultural Sociology, Material Culture)
Dr. Julian Young
Kenan Professor of Humanities, Wake Forest University
(Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism)
Dr. Dan Zahavi
Professor of Media, Cognition, and Communication,
University of Copenhagen
(Social Dimension of Self-Experience, Empathy, Social Cognition)
